I'm betting that every single signatory on that petition is also an ardent supporter of Planned Parenthood, the perverts' best friend.

Is it just me, or is there something bizarre about the way the Left treated Clarence Thomas (who allegedly made a lot of bawdy jokes that an underling found offensive) versus the way they treat Roman Polanski (who raped a 13 year old girl)?

Somehow making crude comments and gestures toward a grown woman is a heinous crime against humanity, but drugging and raping an underage girl is just part and parcel of being, you know, a great artiste.

How come Planned Parenthood and NARAL aren't objecting? After all, imagine if the mean old Republicans get back in power and gain access to the list. If abortion information is so private that it's a violation of confidentiality to allow a judge to review redacted records, how come it's not so private that the Feds can't collect your name and bank account information?

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) sent out a statement yesterday that was brazen, even under the standards of today’s House leadership.

After the Republicans have introduced at least 35 health care bills ... Hoyer still says that the Republicans don’t have an alternative. His office released the following statement Monday:

“In June, House Republicans pledged to introduce a bill to reform America’s health care system. Now, over 100 days and numerous excuses later, the “Party of no” has not only failed to produce legislation, but they have yet to offer any real solutions or ideas on how to make health care more affordable and accessible to American families.”

.... President Obama ... insisted that he has an open door policy and would meet with anyone who has a good idea. .... Since January, the RSC has asked to meet with President Obama to swap health care ideas. The RSC has submitted four formal requests and at least a dozen staff inquiries, but as of yet there has been no commitment from the administration to grant the RSC a meeting with the president. ....

Saturday, September 26, 2009

On September 26, 1990, 17-year-old Sophie McCoy died in a New York hospital, leaving a one-year-old son motherless.

The events that led to her death started on September 17, when Sophie went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat. She was accompanied by her mother and by the husband of the operator of a facility identified as "the Willoughby Avenue Clinic." She had been referred to him, but medical board documents do not say by whom.

Sophe and her mother returned to Hayat's office the next day and paid $300 for the safe, legal abortion. Sophie was given intravenous medications which put her to sleep. She was kept about four hours and discharged with another prescription for antibiotics.

That evening, Sophie was bleeding, had abdominal pain, and was having trouble breathing.

The next day, September 19, she was taken to a hospital, reporting vaginal bleeding, chest pain, and shortness of breath. Dr. Harding, who treated her, discovered that Sophie had a perforated uterus and serious sepsis. An emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Sophie developed disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) and septic shock, which killed her.

After Sophie's death, Hayat originally denied having treated her at all. But Sophie's mother identified Hayat by name and from a photograph.

While continuing to deny having treated Sophie, Hayat told one of the physicians who had tried to save her life that she had expelled a fetus at home and come to him for treatment, whereupon he'd sent her to the hospital. But Margie, an employee of his, recognized Sophie from a photo and said that Hayat had indeed treated the girl on two occasions. Margie added that after the second visit, Sophie's mother had called, hysterical and crying. Margie further said that she had seen medical records for Sophie at the facility, and that Hayat had argued with the referring clinic about payments for Sophie's treatment.

The case was reported to the district attorney and the New York Health Department, but nobody took any action against Hayat until he pulled the arm off Ana Rosa Rodriguez (pictured, above right) during an abortion attempt in 1991.

Mrs. Annie Heaney, age 50, died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago on September 26, 1906, from complications of a criminal abortion performed there that day. Physician Jonathan L. Miller was arrested in the death.

Note, please, that with standard public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

Friday, September 25, 2009

This is a PUBLIC SCHOOL IN NEW JERSEY, not a private school where parents choose to pay tuition to have their children taught to believe what their parents believe.

The fact that they can do things like this to other people's kids without parental permission is why the Left opposes school choice. If you can choose to send your kid to an indoctrination-free school, wouldn't you choose to do so?

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The language of the motion that applies to "any organization that has been indicted for a violation of any federal or state law" when it comes to lobbying or campaign finances. It also excludes "any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any federal or state regulatory agency."

Frankly I think the language needs to indicate that any organization that has been indicted or has filed fraudulent forms with regulatory agencies will need to be carefully vetted and decisions made about Federal funds in a thorough and transparent manner. After all, you can get indicted based just on allegations. You can also get charges dropped because of political connections. An indictment isn't proof of guilt, and dropped charges aren't proof of innocence. Also, a vendor might be the only available vendor for something vital to national security, and also be so humongous that the guilt of a manager in Seattle ought not to reflect on the character of a manager in Pensacola.

But it sure would be sweet to see PP go down in screaming flames at last.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A fan did this amazing Buster Keaton montage to the tune of "Hooked on a Can Canl". I'm trying to identify what movies all the bits are from. And a couple of them are very familiar but I can't place exactly what movie they're from. Help?

(Links take you to where you can watch the movie in question free online)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The doctor performed the abortion on September 3. He was unable to remove any of the fetus or placenta. For some reason, he did not suspect a problem. He discharged Amanda and she returned home. Upon her return home, she suffered from pain, nausea, and vomiting, so she sought care from a physician in her community. She was admitted to the hospital with a perforated uterus.

Her doctor performed a lapartotomy, and found that the fetus was still inside Amanda's perforated uterus. The abortion was completed and the hole in her uterus was repaired.

After the surgery, Amanda had a series of complications beginning with difficulty breathing. On September 10, doctors performed a hysterectomy. Amanda continued to be treated in the hospital, but despite all their efforts she died on September 22.

I believe that Dr. Paul Jarrett was one of the doctors who tried to save her life. His story is here:

A few months into my residency, I came face to face with the issue of abortion for the first time. An 18-year-old Indiana University coed came into Coleman Hospital with lower abdominal pain. She related to me that she had been to New York City earlier that day to have a legal abortion performed at a clinic there. She had gotten on a plane at 8am at Indianapolis International Airport and flown to New York. She was taken to a legitimate clinic by a cab driver. She had believed she was two and a half months pregnant, but after the doctor had unsuccessfully attempted to abort the pregnancy, he told her she wasn't really pregnant after all and sent her home. She returned to Indiana on the 4pm flight as planned.

When she returned home in terrible pain, she realized she was in trouble and for the first time, told her mother what had happened to her. Her mother contacted her own gynecologist, who in turn referred the patient to Coleman Hospital to be evaluated by the resident on call--me.

Even though I was still wet behind the ears, I know that this pale, frightened little girl was still 10 weeks pregnant and her blood count was only half of what it should be. The private, attending doctor came in and took the patient to surgery immediately that night, where he repaired the hole that had been torn in the back of her uterus, which had caused her massive internal hemorrhage.

Over the course of the next few days, infection set in which did not respond to antibiotics, and we made the painful decision to perform a hysterectomy. Tragically, the shock from the infection severely damaged her lungs and her course was steadily downhill. As I helplessly watched, she slipped into unconsciousness and a few days later she died.

Monday, September 21, 2009

The widower of a Wisconsin teacher killed in a safe, legal abortion has filed suit against the hospital training the resident who did the procedure.

Linda Boom, age 35, went to Sinai Samaritan Medical Center in Milwaukee for an abortion on September 21, 1995. Linda and her husband, Dennis Boom, had married in 1993 and planned to start a family. Linda learned that she was pregnant in June of 1995, but in September elected abortion because the fetus had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Linda's aunt had Down Syndrome, which Linda believed meant "no life."

Fourth-year resident Karen S. Watson administered an amnioinfusion. Linda reported pain and said she was "burning up all over." This is consistent with what a woman might experience during a botched saline abortion.

Watson's supervising physician, Daniel Gilman, injected more chemicals into Linda's uterus. Dennis Boom's attorney, Patrick Dunphy, said that the two injections caused the heart damage that killed Linda 36 hours after the first injection.

Watson did not use ultrasound to guide the needle injecting the poison into Linda, and apparently she injected the chemicals directly into Linda's bloodstream instead of into the amniotic sac.

The defense, of course, says that there was no negligence. Also, the hospital says that Gilman is responsible for Linda's death, because he performed the second injection and was supervising Watson. Gilman can't be named in the suit because the statute of limitations expired before Linda's husband filed.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Gilman "had performed more than 100 abortions." Watson has started an ob/gyn practice in Milwaukee.

News coverage of the case does not indicate why Watson and Gilman chose the antiquated instillation technique for Linda's abortion. Since the late 1960s, nations such as Sweden, Japan, and the Soviet Union had abandoned instillation abortions as being far too dangerous for the mother. US abortionists began abandoning the technique in the mid-1980s.

On September 9, 1930, 20-year-old Matilda Kleinschmidt underwent a criminal abortion, believed to have been performed in the office of Dr. J. Murney Nicholson. Matilda died on September 21. On September 22, Nicholson was held by the coroner for murder. John C. Ross was held as an accessory. Nicholson was indicted for felony murder in Matilda's death.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Weepingprophet did this amazing Buster Keaton montage to the tune of The Pixies' "Down to the Well". I'm trying to identify what movies all the bits are from. And a couple of them are very familiar but I can't place exactly what movie they're from. Help?

(Links take you to where you can watch the movie in question free online)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Cassandra Bleavins, a 20-year-old clerk, died shortly after midnight on September 19, 1971, at LA County/USC Medical Center. She had been taken there just the day before, comatose after an abortion.

The abortion had been performed on September 2, 1971. Cassandra had bled heavily afterward, and the abortionist had tied off a portion of her cervix to control the bleeding, then sent her home.

On September 15, Cassandra returned to the place where her abortion had been done, reporting heavy bleeding. She was given a follow-up D&C and again sent home. She returned again on September 17, still bleeding heavily, and went into convulsions during treatment. Cassandra slipped into a coma. The next day, she was brought to LA County/UCLA Medical Center, where she died.

The coroner discovered a 1.25 inch sutured laceration in Cassandra's uterus, additional sutures to her uterine artery, and uterine hemorrhaging. The medical examiner concluded that Cassandra had bled to death due to the lacerations and D&C.

Where had Cassandra undergone the abortion that took her life?At the apartment of a woman who ran an underground abortion service. The abortionist was the leader of the group, a social activist who had learned to do abortions from an elderly doctor who was looking for somebody to replace him.At a veterinary clinic. At a doctor's office. The doctor was arrested after Cassandra's death.At a county-owned hospital. The abortion was perfectly legal, and the doctor faced no charges in Cassandra's death.

Eighteen-year-old Michelle Thames suffered a seizure during her safe and legal abortion at Her Medical Clinic on September 19, 1987. She died later that day. Her family filed suit, claiming that Her Medical Clinic staff had made inadequate attempts to resuscitate Michelle.

Michelle wasn't the only young woman to die at the notorious Her Medical Clinic, run by abortionist Leo Kenneally. Liliana Cortez died there September 20, 1986. Donna Heim died there August 12, 1986. And Maria Soto died there after being injected with drugs and left unattended on September 9, 1985.

The battle over Kenneally's medical license turned political after it was suspended by the medical board over the appalling conditions at Her Medical Clinic. Former state medical board executive director Dixon Arnett's said that Leo F. Kenneally's case was "the most egregious I have seen, bar none." But a judge restored Kenneally's license on the grounds that he was doing a public service "providing abortions" in an "underserved area."

The investigation of patient deaths wasn't the first time Kenneally got in trouble. His license had been suspended in 1979 for Medi-Cal theft, and previously in 1975 for records-keeping violations.

In September of 1922, 35-year-old Mary Cybulski died at her Chicago home from complications of a criminal abortion performed there that day. (The source gives the date of offense as September 15 but the date of death as September 1, so clearly there's an error in the database.) On November 15, Lucy Kozolwski, whose profession is not given, was indicted for felony murder in Mary's death.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

In September of 1916, Mrs. Etta E. Gardener, 22-year-old wife of Burr Gardener, died in St. Luke's Hospital in Denver, of sepsis from an illegal abortion performed in Yuma. She had been admitted as having appendicitis.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

According to this administrative complaint, Regina (Identified only by the initials R.J.) was 32 years old when she went to Womancare of Southfield on September 17, 2003. She was pregnant for the fourth time, having given birth once, and either aborted or miscarried twice. Hodari, owner of Womancare, was not present at the time.

Nurse Litchtig performed an ultrasound, "even though there was no physician order for the study. She interpreted the study as showing a five week pregnancy and signed [Hodari's] name..." Dr. Milton Nathanson initialed the ultrasound to confirm Lichtig's finding.

CRNA Barry Thompson did the anesthesia while Nathanson did the abortion. Regina was given 200 mg of Diprivan, 2 mg Fentanyl, .2mg Gylcopyrrolate, and Droperidol to anesthetize her for the abortion, which was charted as taking place from 9:55 to 10:05 a.m.

Regina was then sent to the recovery room, along with five or six other patients under the care of Litchtig. Though clinic protocol required more than one staff person present when patients were in recovery, Lichtig was sometimes alone in caring for the patients.

Though Hodari's recovery room was equipped with a stethescope, oxygen bag/valve mask, and digital blood pressure cuff, it was not equipped with an EKG monitor, pulse oximeter, or automatic blood pressure/pulse monitor with alarm for monitoring patients, or with oxygen, a difibrillator, or other resuscitation equipment.

Lichtig recorded Regina's blood pressure and pulse manually upon admission to recovery, and at 10 - 15 minute intervals. At 10:05, Regina's blood pressure and pulse were a normal 116/72 and 82. At 10:15, they were 108/56 and 88. This fall in blood pressure and rise in pulse, especially in combination, are an early sign that a patient might be suffering complications such as blood loss. However, Lichtig reported that Regina's respiration was easy and unlabored.

The document notes that Lichtig was actually performing above the call of duty: Womancare protocol only required her to check a patient's vitals upon arrival in recovery, at 15 minues, and at discharge, usually after about an hour in recovery. Hodari's protocol also allowed for the nurse to discharge patients from the clinic. "There was no provision that the patient be seen by a physician once she was transferred to the recovery room."

At 10:30, Lichtig was unable to rouse Regina, who still had a pulse and unlabored breathing. Lichtig tried for about ten minutes to awaken Regina. At about 10:40, she could no longer detect a pulse. She immediately told CRNA Thompson, who was then wheeling another patient into recovery. The two of them brought Regina back to the OR and began performing CPR. However, nobody called 911 until 11:00, twenty minutes after noting that Regina was pulseless. EMS arrived promptly, at 11:05.

EMS took Regina to Providence Hospital, where with continued CPR and got a pulse. Regina was put on life support, but was pronounced brain dead. She was taken off life support and declared dead on September 18. An autopsy determined that Regina had died from anoxic encephalopathy due to cardiac arrest. In other words, she died because her brain had been deprived of oxygen.

The Administrative Complaint found Hodari to be negligent, incompetent, and lacking in good moral character. Hodari did not contest the findings, instead cooperating with bringing his facility up to standards to pass an inspection by an anesthesiologist in February of 2009. But in the mean time, he'd performed the fatal abortions on Tamiia Russell in 2004 and Chivon Williams in 1996.

The state Attorney General's office fined Hodari $10,000 on March 4, 2009, for his part in the death.

The latest National Abortion Federation update no longer lists Womancare as a member, though they were recently. They certainly were in 2004, when Chivon and Tamiia died, which is the oldest page of Michigan NAF members that I can find on the Internet Archive. Womancare was also still a member in 2007, the most recent update on the Internet Archive. I'd be very interested in having NAF Annual Reports so I could look up what years Hodari and his mills were members.

Thirty-six-year-old Kathy McKnight underwent an abortion on September 17, 1993. Early the next morning, Kathy had trouble breathing. She was taken to University Memorial Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kathy died in the emergency room. Her autopsy revealed that she died of a pulmonary embolism.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Holly Patterson, age 18, died September 17, 2003, from sepsis caused by a fetus incompletely expelled in a safe and legal medical abortion. Holly had gotten the drugs for the fatal abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California, on September 10.

Rather than follow the recommended protocols for chemical abortions, Planned Parenthood followed the more popular American approach of giving Holly the mifepristone at the facility, then giving her misoprostol to self-administer at home.

Holly had experienced severe cramping and pain, and went to the emergency room. She was examined, given pain medication, and discharged.

At her boyfriends insistence, she returned to the emergency room on September 17, but by then her condition had deteriorated and efforts to save her were futile.

Monty Patterson, Holly's father, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you're getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it's all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she's sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong."

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

On September 16, 1999, 60-year-old Shelby A. Moran died in the nursing home she had lived in since January of 1978, when a botched abortion left her incapacitated and unable to care for herself, much less her five children.

Shelby had been given Prostaglandin F2 Alpha for a safe, legal abortion at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Immediately after the drug was injected, Shelby experienced grossly abnormal elevation of her blood pressure. The abortionist, Dr. John J. Barton, thought that the elevation would be transient, and left the facility. Half an hour later, Shelby went into cardiopulmonary arrest. She suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen, causing dementia and speech aphasia.

Gracealynn "Tammy" Harris was 19 years old when she underwent an abortion by Dr. Mohammad Imran at Delaware Women's Health Organization on September 16, 1997. She was 18 weeks pregnant. After the procedure, Tammy was weak, and needed a wheelchair to leave the facility. Reports indicate that Tammy also may have had a seizure in front of the clinic nurses. She died that day.

Tammy's family filed suit against Imran and the clinic. Imran's attorney said that Tammy's death was the clinic's fault. He said that the clinic staff did not monitor Tammy's vital signs, and did not inform him of her condition. The family's lawyer faulted Imran with leaving the clinic to go to another facility before Tammy was stable.

The lawsuit resulted in $2,252,000 to Tammy's family. The money was put into a court-controlled account for Tammy's son, who was nine months old when his mother died. Imran's insurance company was defunct, so he had to settle again with Tammy's family. He was last known to be practicing medicine, including obstetrics, in New Jersey.

Alerte Desanges had been informed that her fetus was deformed, so she went for a safe, legal abortion at Choices Women's Medical Center in Queens on September 16, 1994. She was 36 years old and 19 weeks pregnant.

The abortion was performed by David Gluck. Staff said that after her abortion, Alerte was "feisty, telling nurses she wanted to go home. Then all of a sudden, she coded, she went into cardiac arrest."

Her blood pressure fell. Staff attempted to revive her, then transported her to a hospital. Her death was tentatively attributed to amniotic fluid embolism by staff.

Desanges' 66-year-old mother, who speaks only French, was described as throwing her hands in the air and sobbing, "What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We can't go back to Haiti." Desanges supported her mother and three daughters working as a caretaker for an elderly woman, and had just bought a small house in Brooklyn.

Gluck's license had been revoked for three years after selling controlled substances to finance his gambling addiction. Gluck had also been Medical Director at C.R.A.S.H. when abortion patient "K.B." died. The Choices clinic director said "We are firmly committed to helping people who are skilled medical professionals who have had a fall from grace."

One of the few cases I've found in which a criminal abortionist wasn't a doctor is also one of the strangest cases I've found. The abortionist, Sarah Howe, age 57, had been blind since she was three years old. Howe was charged with abortion and with manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Helen Clark, who died September 16, 1941. Howe was convicted of abortion, but was found not guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to two to four years in prison.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

I came to the Tea Party Rally in DC with my granddaughter. We left early to go take in the sights.

At the Natural History Museum, I submitted my backpack for the expected weapons search. I figured I'd have to part with the tub of fried rice leftover from my lunch -- after all, food is forbidden in the museums. But the guard wasn't looking for weapons or food. He was after my most dangerous contraband -- a 4"x6" sign (yes, INCHES) saying "Hands off our health care" and a bumper sticker I'd been given but hadn't looked at before shoving it in my bag. The guard insisted that "due to controversy" these materials were simply not permitted in the museum, not even in a closed bag.

I'd like to know where the museum management gets off, deciding what printed material people are permitted to bring inside. And I'll be raising hell.

Monday, September 07, 2009

There are a lot of perfectly fine portions -- perfectly appropriate from any President to the start of any school year. The problem is the embedding.

For starters, I don't like his early assumptions:

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

Maybe even without Dear Leader's pep talk some kids really are excited to be in school and learning. I know my granddaughter was jazzed to start "big girl school." My kids, like my siblings and friends and me, tended to greet the first day of school with great excitement. And when I was a teenager I was awake and about long before it was time to leave for school -- I had a job babysitting for a woman who worked an early shift. I was over there long before most kids were awake. I got her kids up and dressed and off to their carpool before I hustled myself off to school. A lot of kids of all ages work -- many on farms, which require that the entire family be up and about before dawn. So I resent his implication that the kids aren't excited to start a new year, that they resent being dragged out of bed.

But now we get to the really objectionable part. The Noble Struggles of Our Dear Leader:

When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday - at 4:30 in the morning. ....

Then he goes back to lecturing what he clearly assumes are a bunch of shiftless bums, haplessly left in the hands of uninspiring teachers Dear Leader has admonished to do better, and bred by indifferent parents who need Dear Leader to scold them into turning off the XBox and TV:

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot about responsibility. I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn. I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

And, of course, Dear Leader's leadership is desperately needed at all levels:

I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.

Now he's back to scolding the slugabeds:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed

And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Now that he's done tearing down the kids and everybody around them, from their classmates to Congress, he starts to build them back up:

Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

Now he finally goes on to talk about why education is important. And all of this would have been fine if he hadn't proceeded it with the subtle scolding about how lackadaisical everybody would be if it weren't for Dear Leader imparting to them the lessons he learned on his Sainted Mother's Knee.

Then he suddenly starts to sound like Eisenhower reeling from the launch of Sputnik:

And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

....

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that - if you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

That part's a little overblown, but it's old hat so I'll not find fault with it. Nor with this:

Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

But where he could hold up any of a number of role models -- preferably some politically unobjectionable ones like Abe Lincoln and Booker T. Washington -- he instead extols his own triumph over adversity, even holding up his wife as Dear Leader's Noble Consort:

My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.

So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Then he finally gets back on track and goes to encouraging the kids:

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.

For a single paragraph. Then he resumes the scold:

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.

Then he's back to encouraging the kids and finally brings up some inspirations that aren't Dear Leader:

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer - hundreds of extra hours - to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he's headed to college this fall.

And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

I don't quite like "I expect all of you to do the same." How about, "I know that each of you, deep inside, has the courage to do the same." Make it about lifting the kids up, not scolding them with what Dear Leader happens to want from them.

He moves on with a solid pep talk:

That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education - and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book.

Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn.

Then suddenly he gets banal:

And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

That's insipid rather than objectionable. Which leads me to wonder what committee he ran the speech past. I can just picture some public health official saying, "Tell the little snots to cover their faces when they sneeze!"

The next section is actually pretty good, other than the "I want you to" tone:

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it. I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you - you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust - a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor - and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you - don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country? Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too.

So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down - don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Tanya Williamson, aka "Patient A", had laminaria inserted at Moshe Hachamovitch's New York abortion facility on September 6, 1996, for an early second-trimester abortion. Hachamovtich estimated that she was almost 14 weeks pregnant. He instructed Tanya to return the next day for her abortion.

Tanya returned on September 7, as instructed. According to medical board documents, "At or about 11:00 a.m. Patient A was given Valium 10 mg." This medication was not noted on clinic documents that were given to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) Gori, who then administered 150 mg. of Brevitol at about 1:50 p.m., whereupon Hachamovitch performed the abortion.

The medical board then notes, "150 mg. Of Brevital causes loss of consciousness and also potentially decreases the patient’s respiratory rate and blood pressure. The amount of Brevital administered to this patient would cause respiratory depression for approximately 30 minutes. The majority of that time Patient A was in the recovery room. The level of respiratory depression is tied into the amount of stimulation of the patient. Surgery is a very strong stimulus, once that is removed the respiratory depression increases.

The board noted that Tanya was still totally unresponsive from the effects of anesthesia when she was moved to the recovery room. Staff noted her pulse and oxygen saturation, then removed her pulse oximeter, which monitors pulse and oxygen saturation.

The medical board notes that at 2 p.m., after 5 minutes in recovery, Tanya'’s blood pressure was 96/80, and her pulse 68. This is within normal limits. At 15 minutes (2:10 p.m.), Tanya's blood pressure had fallen to 60/40, her pulse to 52, and her respirations were shallow. Such a sharp fall in blood pressure is an alarming sign that the patient might be going into shock or suffering other life-threatening problems. The falling blood pressure is especially alarming in combination with shallow breathing.

At 2:11 p.m., Tanya's pulse was noted as "thready," which means weak and erratic. Her blood pressure was so low that it could not be measured with a cuff. The medical board noted, "At this point, a patient without an obtainable blood pressure and a barely palpable pulse was functionally in cardiac arrest. Respondent was notified of the problem with Patient A at approximately 2:15 p.m."

Hachamovitch examined Tanya in recovery, started a new IV with D5W and Ephedrine, then told the recovery room nurse to do CPR, and somebody to call Emergency Medical Services (EMS).

EMS Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) arrived at 2:41 to find Tanya blue and unresponsive, with no pulse or breathing and fixed pupils. ACLS took Tanya's vital signs, attached a cardiac monitor, and properly placed a breathing tube to help get oxygen into Tanya's lungs. An ACLS team member then hooked up Hachamovitch's bag-valve mask (used to pump air into the lungs) and found that it was broken and wasn't working. The ACLS team member switched over to the EMT’s ventilation unit.

The medical board said, "When respondent arrived in the recovery room, he should have immediately ascertained the patient’s pulse, blood pressure, and if there were vaginal bleeding. This should have taken between 20 seconds and, at the outside, two to three minutes. He should have realized that the patient was in cardiac arrest and started ACLS. The cause of the arrest was not relevant at that point; the immediate treatment was the same. Given the clinical picture of this patient at 2:15 p.m. when Respondent was called to the recovery room EMS should have been called immediately and the patient intubated. Even if Patient A were only in a near arrest situation Respondent should have immediately call EMS and instituted the rest of ACLS protocol. Advanced Cardiac Life Support consists of immediate call to EMS for transfer to hospital, intubation, EKG monitoring so that if the patient requires defibrillation, the rhythm and appropriate ACLS drugs are known. This patient’s condition had to be treated in a hospital setting, the sooner the patient were to get to the hospital, the better her chances of survival."

Despite the fact that Hachamovitch had the equipment to put a breathing tube into Tanya, she was being given oxygen with a face mask. There was no note that Hachamovitch had even inserted an airway, which is a small device that keeps the patient's tongue from blocking air from getting into the lungs. Though Hachamovitch had additional, necessary drugs on hand to help restore cardiac function, he didn't administer them to Tanya. Though he had an EKG machine, he never used it. "Such a failure deviated from accepted medical standards."

"A physician who performs surgical procedures, i.e. abortion, under general anesthesia in free standing outpatient facilities, has an obligation to recognize when a patient is in cardiac arrest and to know how to resuscitate the patient. Respondent did not recognize that Patient A was in cardiac arrest. Respondent did not carry out generally recognized resuscitation measures in this patient."

On Saturday, September 7, 1996, the day Tanya died, Hachamovitch had one R.N. in the recovery room, along with a medical assistant, a sonographer and a receptionist from the front who went to the recovery room to help when the recovery room was busy. The sonographer was not trained to observe patients recovering from anesthesia. The receptionist had taken a medical secretary course, and did not have any special training in caring for patients covering from general anesthesia.

At the time Tanya was brought into the recovery room, there were nine other patients in the room, and yet another patient was brought in a few minutes after Tanya. One of those nine patients already in the recovery room was shaking and almost convulsing.

The board noted that Hachamovitch's recovery room was not sufficiently staffed to adequately monitor patients recovering from general anesthesia.

The board also noted, "Respondent’s medical record did not accurately reflect the care and treatment rendered to patient A."

The Committee slammed Hachamovitch for multiple violations of standards of care, particularly in how patients were monitored and cared for after general anesthesia, and the lack of training of the staff attending them. They slammed him for lack of adequate equipment and for failing to use what little equipment he had.

The board suspended Hachamovitch’s license, and added probationary requirements that he was to be supervised by an anesthesiologist who had no conflict of interest, that Hachamovitch maintain ACLS certification, and that he maintain at least one staffer in recovery who is ACLS certified.

How many other patient deaths have been identified at Hachamovitch's facilities? There may be more than one correct answer.Hachamovitch had two other patients who died before Tanya's death.A patient died in a Texas facility owned and operated by Hachamovitch, though another doctor actually performed the abortion.Two abortion patients bled to death after abortions at an Arizona abortion facility owned by Hachamovitch.Hachamovitch performed a fatal abortion on a patient in Texas.

Synthia began to hemorrhage during the surgery. A medical investigation later found that Obasi had "failed to summon help in a timely manner; refused to allow trained and skilled paramedics to attend to Synthia; refused to allow paramedics to transport Synthia to a hospital in a timely manner" and otherwise "allowed Synthia to bleed to death."

Synthia's survivors had to file a court order to keep the facility from destroying her records. An autopsy revealed that instead of removing a section of Synthia's fallopian tube, Obasi had removed a portion of an artery. The autopsy also revealed that Synthia, mother of two, had not been pregnant at the time of her abortion.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

It was September 5, 1992. Eighteen members of Deanna Bell's family were gathered in a Chicago abortion clinic, wanting to know why the 13-year-old girl was lying dead in a back room.

Dr. Steve Lichtenberg, who had performed the fatal abortion, left his clinic manager to field questions from Deanna's distraught relatives. Lichtenberg himself had joined the clinic manager earlier in talking to Deanna's mother and sister. Deanna had, they told the family, most likely died from an amniotic fluid embolism -- a known, dangerous, and difficult to treat complication of later abortions.

It was just one of those flukey things that happens sometimes.

Somebody at the clinic -- Albany Medical Surgical Center -- notified the coroner about the death. Even though Deanna's death was attended by a physician, somebody thought to order an autopsy. Tests were performed that found no evidence of an amniotic fluid embolism.

So why was the child dead? She had been taken into the procedure room at about 7:40 that evening, a healthy girl. The abortion had taken nine minutes. During the nine minutes Lichtenberg had spent pulling her unborn baby out in pieces, something had gone wrong. She had been discharged to the recovery room at 7:51, rating only 9 favorable points out of 14 for color, respiration, and so on. Her pulse was alarmingly rapid -- between 130 and 135 beats per minute.

After only two minutes in the recovery room, at 7:53, Deanna was documented as lacking all vital signs -- pulse, respiration, blood pressure. But the first efforts to resuscitate her were not documented until 8:51. During that hour, Lichtenberg said, there were attempts at resuscitation, but nobody had documented them and nobody had called an ambulance so that properly-trained medics could resusciate Deanna and bring her to a better-equipped facility.

It was a multi-stage 21-week abortion that had begun on September 3 with the insertion of laminaria -- sticks of seaweed that absorb moisture, expand, and dilate the cervix. According to Deanna's records, she was "uncooperative" during this process -- which, Deanna's family said, had been performed by a non-physician -- so when the time came to change the laminaria the next day, Lichtenberg did it under general anesthesia. Deanna was administered 400 mg of Brevital -- a drug not approved for pediatric use -- when a sufficient dose for an adult would be 70 mg. And during the procedure, Lichtenberg accidentally ruptured the amniotic sac.

During the actual abortion procedure on the 5th, Deanna was given at least 250 mg. of Brevital -- at least 3.6 times the therapeutic dose.

Was this massive dose of Brevitol the reason Deanna's heart stopped? The coroner drew no conclusions, merely noting that Deanna had congested lungs, a uterus full of clotted blood, and a lot of Brevitol in her system.

Deanna's family wanted answers. They sued. And in their investigation they found evidence that Lichtenberg's staff failed to monitor Deanna. The facility had no protocols for dealing with cardio-respiratory arrest. They also found that Deanna wasn't the first patient to die after an abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility. Denise Holmes, Mary Pena, Patricia Chacon, Josefina Garcia, Laniece Dorsey, Tami Suematsu, Joyce Ortenzio, and Susan Levy had already died under the ministrations of Allred and his team of abortionists. And Allred admitted in a deposition that he had never done any sort of preventability study after any of these deaths. He said that he could find no fault with his staff in their handling of Deanna.

Deanna Bell has been dead 17 years now, four more years than she'd spent walking this earth. Allred, Lichtenberg, and the FPA attorneys have been stalling the family's lawsuit, which remains unresolved. The family still has no answers.

At a National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar (Lichtenberg is always in attendance, and frequently a presenter), Planned Parenthood Medical Director Michael Burnhill scolded Lichtenberg when he boated of his exploits in performing risky abortions in an outpatient facility and treating life-threatening complications on-site instead of transporting patients to fully-equipped facilities. Burnhill called this "playing Russian roulette with patients' lives.

It appears that in Lichtenberg's little game, Deanna Bell was the loser.

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